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Week 10

And here is a final week of the Mastering Design Thinking course. We were supposed to create a time capsule and demonstrate all received knowledge during the course through this work.

During the lesson I understood that majority didn't realize the importance of the work. I think professor Ainur expected so much more from us (-_-;). After her comments to other works, I understood that I could make my work a bit better: I could prepare a sketch with an illustration of a time capsule, I could add a text within my box for people who will find the box in the future with a description of each thing I put inside.

Initially I wanted to make something very simple because simplicity is a quality that characterizes me well. That is why I chose origami. I also chose it because I really liked doing origami when I was a kid, and I thought it would be a good idea to represent one of the types of art. I also expected that many students will make origami too but surprisingly I was the only one from my group who chose such approach.

Here is how my work looked like in the result. I also put a USB flash drive inside.

The earrings represent my Kazakh culture. The ring I put inside is an important accessory for me because I don't take it off since 14 years old. And USB flash drive would keep any possible information about our world nowadays.

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Week 9

I brought my prototype of a teapot a week later because I had to skip a Friday lesson on week 7 and wasn't present on lessons on week 8. When I gave it to professor, she handed to each of us a prototype of some other ITM students. If I am not mistaking, those were the works of ITM-2105. Our task was to assess their works according to such criteria as user experience, user interface and accessibility. I assessed a work that looked like this:

As I understood from the sketch, the work demonstrated an armchair and a work desk that can be adapted to all comfortable conditions. Consequently, a person who uses these items should not have any spine problems. I really liked the fact that a person is sitting right on a chair and does not fall. I also liked how detailed and colorful the work turned out. An experience of assessing other works was very interesting, I liked it :) For some moment I felt like a professor :D

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Week 8

I skipped a lesson on Tuesday. To be honest, I overslept (o_o). So I don't really know what happened that day.

And the lesson on Friday was online due to ice on roads and a very strong wind (>_<). I don't really know what to comment about that week (-_-;)

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Week 7

Assignment of that week was so difficult and challenging for me ;) We were supposed to create a prototype of an object chosen for "50 shades of sketches" out of a quick-setting plasticine. I don't know, maybe I bought a low-quality plasticine but the biggest problem was to make a surface smooth without cracks. As I worked in pair with Asylmurat, we had to decide who will make a key and a teapot. I decided to give a try for a teapot. While creating a prototype I realized that making a perfect shape of a teapot was such a difficult task because I wanted to make it empty inside. To achieve that task, I decided to borrow a ball-shaped toy from my nephews to use it as a base of teapot. Then I carved out unnecessary part on the top to make a hole where a hot water is supposed to be poured inside a teapot and a hole for the spout of the kettle. Then, when the base was frozen, I made the spout, the lid, the bottom and the handle of the kettle. Because I ran out of a black color, I had to improvise and use other colors. That is why it turned out a bit messy :D It was my first time creating something out of such plasticine. It was an interesting experience, but I don't think that I will ever use it again :D

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Week 6

I felt very excited about the next assignment called "50 shades of sketches" because as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to test my creativity and drawing skills. Unfortunately, my initial partner couldn't manage to come to that lesson, so I was in pair with Asylmurat. After pulling the numbers, we had to choose between a key and a hot teapot as an object for the sketches. We thought that a key would be an easier thing to draw, but during the process I realized that we were wrong :D It was difficult to get ideas for new shapes of keys, as there are not that many existing shapes. If we decided to choose a teapot, we could draw a variety of different ornaments and illustrations on the surface of that teapot in comparison to a key. But we found a way for expressing the creativity: my approach was to depict the base of the key, which you need to hold on to to open the door, in such shapes as a triangle, a heart, and so on. I think it was a good way out of the situation. In the result of drawing 25 sketches, I understood that this task is way harder than it seems. And I realized that it would've been better if I used markers for drawing.

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Week 5

The first lesson of week 5 will start tomorrow, but I already feel excited about our midterm assignment where we will have to draw 50 sketches of a random object. I feel this way because I see this task as a personal challenge: it's very interesting for me to find out how well I am going to complete this kind of task because it's something I've never done before. When I asked myself what benefit such task can bring us, I thought that maybe a skill that we are going to practice tomorrow is actually very useful for managers. Especially at those situations when you are presenting some idea, your presentation becomes much more interesting when you depict the idea on the board at the same time, while speaking. That is how your audience becomes more involved in your speech. Thus, it may attract more attention and trust from your listener. I hope everything will go well and all of my group mates will succeed!

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Week 4

That week I managed to defend my third assignment and, to be honest, I felt very proud of it :D I felt like I succeeded at organizing my pictures on the card board well and I was proud that professor Ainur made a compliment to my work. She liked the fact that I suggested an idea that could be realized and implemented in our life. I was worried about a big size of my work but I think it turned out okay because there was a project bigger than mine :D It was Nikita's project. My project was called "Modern Woman" because I was adapting the name to the letters that I had on my hand :D If I had more journals, I would've made other name for the project.

It was also challenging to find an idea for a third assignment because I am not a big fan of the games. But then I decided to make a game "Fire and Water" and was a bit upset, when I found out that Balnur's idea was the same as mine ;) I didn't manage to defend it on week 4.

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Week 3

Unexpectedly, I felt a bit anxious and at the same time excited when I had to present my work on Tuesday that week. Usually I don't feel that way during my presentations on other courses at all. Perhaps I felt anxious because I put a piece of my soul into the task and truly put an effort in it, and maybe because it was important for me that I correctly conveyed my idea to the audience. The feeling that the work was really important for me turned out to be unusual, because we were used to do tasks out of necessity, and not out of sincere desire. After all, I connected the idea of the project with the problem of my childhood. That's why this sketch was so important to me. After my presentation, I was already thinking about the next assignment. I already was trying to come up with a good idea.

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Week 2

Unfortunately, two practical lessons on Tuesday were cancelled. And due to my unexpected illness, I skipped a third practical lesson on Friday that was destined for presentations of the first assignment. That is why I didn't witness some of the works that were presented by my group mates. I managed to prepare my own sketch for the assignment that week and that was an upgraded version of the simple glasses that I called "Smart Glasses". The idea of that upgrade was to add some lasers into the lenses which would scan person's eyesight based on how hard he is squinting his eyes. That would mean that the person's eyesight is worsening. Such notification would come up on user's app downloaded on his phone. I also added some other features to that project, such as finding your glasses by the sound effect on them and control the darkening of lenses when sun shines bright. I really enjoyed drawing my sketch because I like drawing. It would be so much better if I added colors to my sketch. I also struggled with an idea of the project because I wasn't used to the fact that the assignment had no special restrictions and gave us complete freedom.

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Week 1

The first practical lesson was conducted as introduction to the course called Mastering Design Thinking. Meeting our professor was so fun because Ainur's practical approach to students made a positive and surprising impression on me. That's why the course has endeared itself very positively. Right after the first 5 minutes of professor's dialogue with us I realized that I will be genuinely interested in this course. What was very unexpected during those first 5 minutes was a realization that it was 8 am in the morning, however, I didn't want to sleep at all. That is how interesting professor's speech appealed to me. Actually, it was the first time when I didn't feel sleepy during the class so early in the morning. The questions which were arising in my head were related to our assignments. I felt very excited about forward assignments because they sounded so peculiar and different from the tasks that we usually used to prepare. I couldn't wait for starting the assignments because I really like doing something with my hands, as I used to express myself through art when I was a child, and in this adult life in university I really missed something like this.